Eight not so interesting facts about me

Well, this post is part of my payment to my tag dues I have to a number of people. I’m now tagged by three people for almost the same thing! This is what you get when you fail to update your blog regularly, not that I’m complaining! 🙂 I’m quite happy to do this.

Sorry for not posting this the soonest now I’m answering three tags from Alma, Jonas and Chuckie. Anyway, I’m following Alma’s format here. 🙂

The rules:

• Each player must post these rules first.
• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Fair?! 🙂 Here’s Blogbastic’s lucky eight facts

1. I love Eraserheads so much that I and my friends bravely held a gig during one open house in our dormitory–I was the trying hard Ely, by the way (sorry I wont upload any podcast of any of our piece for your sanity’s sake!–whehehe! lest I hear a Dicko or a Simon comment from one of you! ). Oh yes, the crowd loved it–well, they were so drunk they didn’t know if I sounded great, I think. 🙂
2. I’m a hell-rider that I figured in an accident when I was about 10. I slammed my racer into thorny bushes at the side of the road and somersaulted three times before missing an unfinished drainage hole with protruding twisted metals, which I just missed by a foot. 🙂
3. My parents seldom know that part of my extra curricular activities is earning money (selling cigarettes, salvaging junk, selling bread among others) that they reported me to the police missing one time when I failed to come home for lunch.
4. I was so shy as a child that just telling the baker that I wanted to sell bread for them took me three days to muster all the courage–imagine waking up about 3am just waiting outside the bakery and looking inside doing nothing walking back and forth??!!! (*sigh* those were the days).
5. Two professional musician friends tried to train me on the reading notes to play the guitar and drums but I never got to learn it. I was also signed up for personal lessons with a senior citizen neighbor of ours (may he rest in peace) to play the octavina, which I also never got to learn that much. I eventually learned and loved to play the guitar, bass guitar, keyboard (piano) and drums at the end of my high school and assisted the musical director at our church in arranging songs. 🙂 (I’m an intro boy by the way not your typical Sting or Jim Paredes musician).
6. I only got into a fight when I was in elementary–punching my playmate’s face, which swelled like a basketball. Well, the fight was instigated by our much older playmates (I was about ten then) and I thought he was not giving in to their instigation then he goes berserk and the last thing I remember was just giving him a right hook–there he goes flying twice in the air and landing on his butt saying “sumbong kita sa Mommy ko!” (I’ll tell my Mother!). Well, I never got scolded by her mother after she learned that it was the son who started it. 🙂
7. I’m a show-off when I was a kid that when a playmate played with a human skull, which we got from the cemetery, I grabbed the stick and paraded it in our village–only to be scolded by our elders that it was disrespectful to do that–I got so scared that I returned the skull myself (with the moral support of my playmates) and praying for the peace of the soul of the skull’s owner (and that he won’t haunt me that night! well, he didn’t anyway) 🙂
8. I was almost kicked out of college due to a number of failed subjects without my parents knowing it. 🙂 (but ei, the end justify the means, at least I proved many of my critics wrong–well to God be the glory!)

Now, I’m not sure if these are not so interesting facts, what do you reckon? (Naks, nakatungtong lang ng Australia, may twang na?! hahaha! 🙂 )

Now, I have to tag 8 bloggers. Here are the lucky blogs/bloggers: Mimie, Czille, Elaine, Jun, Sheila, Ivy, Ana and Lynette.

Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2007

The results are out. Glad to know that at least one of my nomination was judged as one of the top 10 emerging influential blogs for 2007. 🙂

Fruityoaty made it to the list and also took home at US$100 for blogging about it! How lucky could this blogger get?? The list of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2007 are as follows: 

1. An Apple a Day
   The Philosophical Bastard
2. The D Spot
3. CokskiBlue
4. Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old
5. Culture Shiok!
   Utakgago
6. Kubiertos
7. FruityOaty
   PinoyBlogero
8. The Dork Factor
   The Anitokid Chronikos
9. Gibbs Cadiz
10. Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic

The following bloggers are US$100 richer. 🙂

1. Maryrose
2. Sofia for BiSEAN
3. J Angelo Racoma
4. Heneroso
5. Fruityoaty
6. Annamanila
7. Webbyman
8. Marie Casas
9. Mira
10. Jehzeel Laurente

As with all successful writing project on the blogosphere, there were suggestions and few observations regarding the blogs nominated and even the bloggers who participated. Shari was complaining a bit on the representation of blogs. She argued that most of the bloggers who participated were Filipinos and most of the blogs were owned by part or full blooded Filipinos.

Actually, when I blogged about it, I was afraid that it will not get much international coverage when it became evident by week 3 that most of the bloggers and even the nominated blogs were Filipinos/Filipino owned. However, if the contest was only dedicated to Filipino Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs, I guess there might be a few choices despite the growing number of Filipino bloggers.

But hey, this is just the first year of this writing project. Who knows what will happen next year? Well, I hope that more bloggers will participate and this will be one of the most “popular” popularity contests on the blogosphere after the bloggy and other award giving “bodies.” 🙂

Of Perth and delays

Finally after months of waiting for THE day, it finally came. We left Bangkok, Thailand with a bit of sadness and excitement. Sadness to leave our beloved friends in Bangkok and excited to start another chapter in a country we learned to like. We maximized everything–time spent with friends, places, eating among others even our baggage allowance–125 kilos of checked-in baggage and another 35 kilos of hand-carried luggage. 🙂

We will definitely miss Bangkok but we are very happy that we are moving to Perth to finally pursue my studies and enjoy another chapter of our life in Australia, this time, in its Golden State. 🙂

Last post from home

This is my last post from home here in Thailand as we prepare to leave for Perth. We’re off to the ISP provider to cancel our subscription. We’ve almost completed saying goodbyes to friends here in Thailand.

We’ve fallen in love with this country and its people and we would definitely miss everything about it–even the coups. 🙂 Well, I know we’ll do fine in Australia and we look forward to good friends welcoming us and new friends that we’ll build along the way.

Hopefully I could do liveblogging while we travel on Monday. 🙂

Watch this site as I blog about Australia news and our adventures. 🙂 Cheers mate!

Bad Filipino traits I’d Wish to Change

I’ve been lagging behind my tagging responsibilities that I got tagged thrice now. This one’s from Chuckie, then there’s another one from Sir Sonnie and another one from Alma (sorry guys it’s still in the draft, but it will come out in a few weeks). Before my hiatus I had 28 drafts, well I was able to release some only to accumulate two to three more drafts so I still have a few more drafts again. 🙂 (30 to be exact). 

“Trivial” things made beautiful

A friend and brethren in Christ recently held his first solo photo exhibit outside of UP. Dan was chosen as one of the emerging photography artists in the country by HP Philippines during the launch of one of their supplies. I share the joy of this good friend of mine and share with you his exhibited photos during the HP Supplies launch.

If you happen to be in the Philippines, by the way, he is a wedding photographer so please do contact him if you want to be covered by one of the country’s best! 🙂

HP Supplies recently featured Emerging Filipino Photography Artists at Rockwell Mall in Makati City

A view of Vigan by Dan Cercado

Ferris Wheel by Dan Cercado

Dan (left) standing beside one of the hostesses of the exhibit and one of his works of art.

Australia becoming more Asian — census

That’s exactly what the headline says on Inquirer.net. So, what’s the buzz surrounding this issue? My first thought was that they are afraid, they are very, very afraid. Why? Well, another race is overtaking true-blue Australians.

Forgive my ranting but I’m speaking from experience as a random victim of a “sporadic” racism in beautiful Australia back in 2004. While some might consider the cases that I’ve been through as mere coincidence or as nothing serious, it made me think twice whenever I walk the streets of the very quaint and peaceful Newcastle, Australia.

First case. It happened during my first quarter as a student in this developed country. I checked the mail as I usually do and one flyer caught my eye. It was from a certain political group. The flyer was full of Asian bashing arguements like Asians are taking over our jobs, Asians cannot assimilate in Australian culture among others.

The flyer was distributed at every house in our suburb. The following night, stones were raining on our house that we had to call the police for assistance. We saw some youth running away apparently from where the stones are coming from and identified the house where they sought refuge.

We saw the perpetrators but no arrests were made as the parents of the teenagers claimed that they were fast asleep inside the house during the supposed time of attack. We believe we were targetted as we were the most vulnerable Asian in the neighborhood–our house is in a street corner.

I wrote a number of authorities and attached the flyer that I saw and reported our experience. Among those I wrote was Prime Minister John Howard, the secretary of foreign affairs, University officials including Australian Embassy staff in the Philippines. No action was taken as they deemed it as a simple case of random mischief.

Second case. Simple to others but it was a big deal to me as I was shaken a bit–a group of youth on a car followed me and shouted “go home asian!!” which I did, I went home (to our house, which was nearby anyway). 🙂

This experience had shaken me and I just tried to shurg it off after my first experience in the first case. I was warned that I’ll be treated like that someday anyway.

Amazing how some people can be intolerant of others and they ask why there’s murder, rape and terrorism. Or I’m just being too sensitive??? I might be. enough said.

The long overdue underpass came to pass

When I read this news about the comletion of an underpass to QC Circle, it certainly brought back memories when we still resided near the area. My daughter was barely two years of age then.

Every weekend, our usual routine is to spend time strolling around QC Circle. We considered it the last frontier, the only spot (aside from UP) where you can confidently… inhale and exhale (well at least the air is clear in that part of the city). However, before you could do your stroll in the park, you have to brave the road and cross pass speeding motorist, most of whom don’t have any regard whether you’re on the pedestrian lane or even if the traffic light says red (meaning the pedestrian could walk, well it was that bad).

I remember one motorist giving me the finger sign and yelling at me “are you out to kill your family?!!!” while speeding past us–this was even it was a red light for them. Oh well, I might never get to use the QC Circle underpass in the near future but I’m glad that it’s up and running now. Hopefully, Quezon City will be able to maintain it like the underpass in Makati City albeit no airconditioning. 🙂

Immortalized

Death in the Philippines is big time. It is the end so make it memorable anyway. Filipinos usually parade the dead on a hearse with loud music, either the most favorite song of the deceased or a classic line-up provided by the funeral services. There would also be a big photo of the deceased sparking more curiosity among kibitzers (well, including me). The last time I remember the trend of music was more on upbeat–a celebration of life.

I remember as a child just staring at a passing hearse wondering how that person lived his life. That was decades ago. Now, you can just blog hop, learn, be amused, be surprised at how people lived their lives be it for goodness or for worst.

When US Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell was reported missing, most people went online to find out who this Julia Campbell, why did she bother to leave her nice work in New York anyway? People learned more about her in her blog and realized that she is a good person. Days later she was found dead.

 More photos of her work in Bicol

Julia’s blog immortalized her and left a legacy for more people to think about volunteerism in the Philippines (and think about the need to increase security not only for expats but locals).

Recently I learned about another death of a blogger, this time a Filipina and an awarded poet. She was a wife, a mother and a teacher. It’s just devastating to learn about these deaths more so if you found out that this person was so important to many people. I may not know her personally but reading the blogs about her, she lived a vibrant life.

Blogs has served its purpose of immortalizing the people behind it whether they want to remain obscure or are certified A-list bloggers.

Rest in peace.

Hell boy fails to enter Catholic school

A boy surnamed Hell has been banned from an Australian Catholic school according to a report on the Inquirer.net. The ban was imposed apparently because of the boy’s surname. The boy’s father was originally from Austria.

The boy’s parents approached St. Peter Apostle School to enroll him as their son was being bullied in his current school. The school offered the boy a place in the school after the boy’s parents agreed to use the mother’s last name, Wembridge. However, the school backed out of its promise after the parents changed their mind and offered the child another school.

The parents, however, decided to take the child to another school. Hell in Austria means “bright” 🙂

While not related to this news article, this article reminded me of a tourism campaign initiated by Australia sometime in 2004. The accompanying TV ad, however, earned the ire of conservatives in England that it was banned from being aired–WHY?? Because of the hell word plus the adjective of blood–So, where the bloody hell are you?!

 

To some, it seems like an ordinary phrase but if you translate it to American English one might understand it this way–So, where the f*****g hell are you?!, thus, the buzz.